Greens spokeswoman Sarah Hanson-Young says opt-out system doesn’t acknowledge ‘how the internet actually works. Follow today’s news live
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Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young has claimed Labor’s proposal to let Australians opt out of all gambling ads online doesn’t account for how the internet works.
The government has promised a “one-stop shop” to opt out of the ads online, in its latest gambling reform bill introduced on Monday. It has not explained how an opt-out register could work and government sources have conceded it would be a complex measure.
Hanson-Young told the ABC’s 7.30 on Monday the Greens would not support the “smokescreen” bill. She said the government had told her it wouldn’t pursue a stronger alternative measure, a system requiring Australians to opt in to seeing gambling ads, because such a system would effectively ban the ads.
On the opt-out proposal, she said:
The idea that you can opt out of all corners of the internet – I mean, it just beggars belief that any serious policy brain has put this forward. I don’t know whose idea it was. Maybe it was Angus Taylor’s, maybe it was the prime minister’s, but it’s certainly come from someone who doesn’t know how the internet actually works.
But they are being ignored .. I think what’s happened is that Angus Taylor is not up to the job. He is a weak leader. And I think he’s been spooked by Pauline Hanson and One Nation.
